By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY – Staff Writer

Jamboree Days to celebrate Independence Day is arriving on Saturday, July 1 with a parade, a children’s fun zone on the tennis courts, a beer garden with live music in the credit union parking lot and fireworks that evening over Lake Gregory. The celebration will end on Monday, July 3 with a community picnic on the meadow at Lake Gregory, with vendors and bounce houses and lots of family fun of relay races and more, all in Crestline.

The Jamboree Days committee has been working hard to get all the puzzle pieces in order to make the weekend one to remember after a winter most would like to forget.

The theme for Jamboree Days has been chosen. It is “Mountain Strong.” It means so many things after this winter and will also be the theme for parade floats. The theme was inspired by the generosity of many residents who went out of their way to help others by digging neighbors out, by setting up food banks and checking on complete strangers and bringing them food when they heard about dire situations. These mountain residents were strong and helped others, despite circumstances beyond their control and went all out for their neighbors and complete strangers to assist them in this time of need.

Because of those actions of so many mountain residents, the grand marshal for the parade has been chosen by the Crestline chamber as “The Unsung Hero” to honor all of these good Samaritans, some of whom destroyed their own vehicles helping others by pulling cars from ditches, digging driveways so others could get out, saving people from fallen buildings and taking food to those residents without and snowed in, including the elderly and those with young children. There are so many stories of these unsung heroes; since they could not all be singled out and made grand marshal by name, they are being recognized as an unsung group of Mountain Strong heroes.

Now it is time to nominate someone as Citizen of the Year. Each chamber of commerce on the mountain recognizes a Citizen of the Year for their community, someone who has gone out of their way to do something special to build the community. The Crestline chamber honors their special person by having them ride in the Jamboree Days parade. The chamber had previously chosen their Citizen of the Year from their own members’ observations.

In the past, the Citizen of the Year was a person who had done something extra special for the community or the schools. Often, it was residents who had donated years of their time to help the chamber or who had performed other actions to help make the community a better place to live.

Last year, after a year of all activities canceled by COVID, the chamber asked the community to nominate someone they thought had contributed to the business community and made it a better all-around place and improved the community. The person chosen as Citizen of the Year last year was Nathan Godwin, the leader of the local Lake Gregory Company, who had taken over management of Lake Gregory and was bringing it back to popularity by fixing it back up to the fun-filled days of yore.

This year, the chamber is again asking for community input into whom they should choose as Citizen of the Year.

To nominate that special person, go to the Crestline chamber website at CrestlineChamber.org, click on Jamboree Days on the front page and scroll to the nomination form. Detail why you are nominating that person and how the community has been improved by their actions.  The chamber will choose the person to honor from the nominations.